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Russia may sell Iran $10 billion worth of tanks and jets in new arms deal

The nascent deal would further cement an alliance between Moscow and Tehran that is likely to prove a major stumbling block for any rapprochement between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, who has vowed to rip up a nuclear agreement with Iran that the Kremlin supports.

“These talks are on going, the ground has been prepared, the portfolio amounts to around $10 billion,” Viktor Ozerov, an MP who heads the security and defence committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house, told Russian reporters during a trip to Tehran on Monday.

He gave few details about the order, but said it would include Russia’s mainstay T-90 tank.

The United Nations partially lifted an embargo on sales to Iran following the conclusion of a landmark agreement to limit Tehran’s nuclear capabilities in 2015.

However, until 2020 deliveries of conventional weapons must be approved by the United Nations Security Council, which could present a hurdle to any new contract.

“Obviously the US and its allies will block these deliveries, but we will continue these talks,” Mr Ozerov said.